Thanks to a poster on another forum, my attention was brought to this excellent article from Australia's The Age newspaper. It gives far more detail about the rescue effort and the difficulties faced by the divers. Naturally it has more focus on the Australian doctor and his colleagues. It also reveals that the doctor's father sadly died just as the final boys exited the cave. It also confirms what another poster mentioned earlier that the pumps holding back the floodwaters failed at roughly that same time.

Just hours after the last members of the trapped soccer team were freed from Tham Luang cave on Tuesday night, more than 100 rescue workers were forced to flee the cave complex when the pumps holding back floodwaters failed.

The failure of the pumps came just after 10pm, about three hours after the coach had been rescued from the cave and underscores the fact that rescue workers were racing against time, and the rain, to complete the rescue operation.

The Australian police divers involved in the perilous rescue mission in north-western Thailand have shared incredible new details about the final moments in the cave, the dangerous conditions the men were working in and what it felt like to be involved in such an extraordinary international rescue effort which saved all 12 boys and their coach.

Members of the Australian diving team, all of whom have asked not to be identified, described to Fairfax Media the moment when the pumps failed, saying: "There were 100 guys running down the hill and the water was coming. The water was noticeably rising."

"You could see it rising," a member of the diving team said . . .

The mystery Australian dive buddy of the hero Australian doctor, Richard Harris, who gave final medical approval before each boy attempted to exit the cave with Thai Navy SEALs and the all-star international dive team, was Craig Challen, from Perth, a close friend whom Dr Harris asked to join him on the mission in Thailand.

It can be revealed that both men - not just Dr Harris - swam all the way to the boys on each of the three rescue mission days and did not leave the cave until after the boys had been evacuated to safety.

Fairfax Media spoke briefly to Dr Harris on Wednesday morning but he declined to comment. He did, however, acknowledge the huge outpouring of support and thanks that had come from Australia and around the world for his efforts.

It later emerged that his father died on Tuesday evening . . .

For the first few days, the Australian Federal Police divers involved in the operation had to dive for sections of the journey through the cave to chamber three, which had become the main operating base for the teams swimming and diving through to the trapped boys.

Approaching chamber three in those first few days, the divers would walk about 300 metres and then have to dive for between 10 and 20 metres. This pattern would be repeated several times.

Those dives to chamber three "might be 10 metres", one of the divers said. "Then you get up and walk, carrying 46 kilograms of diving equipment on your back."

The approach to chamber three was probably the most technically challenging point.

"[There] was a small hole less than a metre. So you're climbing down through the hole to get into the water."

Diving through and on into chamber three was "like diving in sumps, like the S-bend on your toilet. That's what it's like", the diver said.

"There's a big section after the first dives where it's more of a tunnel formed, rocks fallen on other rocks."

The Australians' job was to move huge amounts of equipment into the third chamber, including hundreds of air cylinders, to support those who were diving all the way through to the boys.

The Australians, who usually perform black-water search operations, were unable to go beyond chamber three as they were held back by their equipment, which would get stuck in even narrower spaces.

"More technical divers and cave divers use rebreathers, which is a technical package, or side mounts [oxygen tanks]," the diver said.

At times, the boys were dragged on "skeds", or stretchers, through sections of the cave, but sometimes they had to dive.

Once the boys had reached chamber three, more than 150 people inside the cave - Thais, Australians, Americans, Chinese and more - helped pass them, on stretchers, hand-by-hand out of the cave.

From chamber three to the exit, a distance of about 1.5 kilometres, people "literally formed a line, passing them hand to hand", one of the divers said.

"We were checking as they passed to make sure their air gauges were still full," another diver said, adding they still had their dive cylinders on, as well as full face masks.

That's because, after more than two weeks, air quality in the cave had declined so much.

"There was a high concentration of oxygen in the air [cylinders] so we kept the air on."

At first, it had taken four to five hours to get through to chamber three because of the need to dive at least three times and because of the more difficult, watery conditions.

But, by the end of the mission, as the water had decreased in the cave and as stairs were cut into mud banks and paths were formed beneath guide ropes attached to the walls, the walk took about 40 minutes.

The moment the final Navy SEAL, who had stayed with the boys, emerged was electric.

A huge roar began deep in the cave and reverberated down to the entrance as it dawned on more and more of the rescue workers, closer and closer to the cave exit, that their mission was complete.

"I was right down the bottom but you could hear all the cheers," one of the divers said.

"It was like a Mexican wave when we got the last diver out, that's when the cheers and shouting happened."

Asked to reflect on what participating in the rescue mission meant, one of the federal police divers put it like this: "In a lot of ways this will be the most amazing thing. It's one of those career defining moments. I'm actually hoping I don't have another defining moment!"

English Premier League side Manchester United have invited the Wild Boars football team, like the Chilean miners rescued in 2010, to visit Old Trafford following their dramatic rescue on Tuesday.

The final five members of the young football team - four youngsters and their 25-year-old coach - were rescued from a flooded Thai cave after spending 18 harrowing days trapped deep inside, completing an astonishing against-the-odds rescue mission that captivated the world.

The dozen players - aged 11 to 16 - and the coach had already received an invitation from Fifa chief Gianni Infantino last week to attend the World Cup final on Sunday in Moscow - although after their traumatic experience they may not be up to the trip physically or mentally.

Manchester United, though, tweeted an invitation just after the news that all had been rescued and with the Premier League season lasting from August through to May there will be plenty of time for them to recuperate and opportunity for them to take the offer up.

"#MUFC is relieved to learn that the 12 footballers and their coach trapped in a cave in Thailand are now safe. Our thoughts and prayers are with those affected. We would love to welcome the team from Wild Boars Football Club and their rescuers to Old Trafford this coming season," the club tweeted on its official account.

United - who this year commemorated the 60th anniversary of their own traumatic experience of the Munich Air disaster that decimated the celebrated "Busby Babes" - extended a similar invitation to the 33 Chilean miners who were trapped underground for 69 days in 2010.

The idea for that invitation which was spread over several days came from Bobby Charlton - one of those who survived the crash and also came from a mining community - and 23 of the miners eventually came with the climax of the visit watching them play Arsenal.

Captain Swing got it right about the water pump failure. And the last of the boys got out just in time.

And apparently Dodger also got it right about that this incident will be made into a movie. According to this article, they're already at it._____________________________________________________________________________

Final group was pulled from Thai cave just before water pump malfunction

July 11, 2018

Thai health officials said the 12 boys and their soccer coach rescued from a flooded cave are in good condition and recovering at a hospital Wednesday morning. Officials said the boys are showing no signs of stress after the 18-day ordeal. CBS News has learned the final four boys and the coach were rescued just in time. Hours after the last boy was pulled out, the main water pump in the caves malfunctioned, sending water rushing in.

Maj. Charles Hodges, the U.S. mission commander for the 353rd Special Operations unit for the Air Force, was a part of the rescue operation in Thailand. Hodges described the tense moments leading up to that final rescue to "CBS This Morning" on Wednesday.

"Well, three of the SEALs, there's four of them back there, three of them made their way into chamber three and about the same time we got the word that the pumps that had been running nonstop shut off for an unknown reason and the water levels back in chamber three started rising which would have cut off our access back to chambers two, one and then out of the cave. And that's an abort criteria for our guys and so when that water level started rising everybody started grabbing their kid and they were ready to get out. Thankfully that last SEAL popped up at the last moment and everyone was able to get out of chamber three safely and make their way out and mission complete. It was a really exciting ending to an awesome mission," Hodges said.

Asked if there were other trying times during the operation that seemed like it might make the rescue impossible, Hodges said, "absolutely."

"We had that thought the whole entire time. We also understood though we didn't have the option to not attempt this," he said. "Even though the odds seemed impossible what I've always been taught is to take risk and be bold when the situation calls for it and this situation absolutely did."

According to Thai health officials, when most of the boys were admitted, they were given antibiotics because of high white blood cell counts, reports CBS News' Anna Werner. Some of the boys have lung infections and they each lost an average of about four pounds while in the cave, but overall, health officials say they are doing well, considering what they have been through.

Rescue volunteers danced and sang when they learned the entire group was safely rescued Tuesday and at a school where some of the rescued boys attend, students gathered to celebrate.

The ordeal began more than two weeks ago, when the 12 boys and their soccer coach became trapped 2 and a half miles inside a complex cave system by fast-moving flood waters. As oxygen levels in the cave dropped and a new round of monsoon rains threatened to raise floodwaters, divers rushed in to rescue the boys. They were taken out in three groups, over 72 hours.

The last member of the rescue team to leave the cave was Australian doctor Richard Harris. His boss said he found out shortly afterward that his father had died. He had stayed in the cave to look after the boys' health.

According to officials, the boys are doing well, in part because they stayed hydrated by drinking water dripping from the cave ceiling. They are now all being monitored for disease, and infections.

Health officials said the boys are also doing well mentally. Perhaps because they stayed together, the official said, adding that the coach who took care of them should be admired.

Officials said the boys were given anti-anxiety pills to help keep them calm during their rescue. All of the boys and their coach are expected to be kept at the hospital through the weekend.

It may come as no surprise that the story of their rescue may become a movie. Film producers have been on the ground in Thailand conducting preliminary interviews.

The problem with a movie version, I reckon, is that producers will be tempted to move the location from Thailand to somewhere like Yosemite. I find it very hard to imagine boys from the USA, the UK, Australia and most other countries actually maintaining the discipline and good spirits over a whole 9 days in a dank, black underground cave that these Thai boys did. Maybe that's a bit harsh but I hope that if a movie really does materialise, Thailand remains the location and Thai boys are used as the actors.

And hopefully Stallone, Schwarzengger and Segal will pay no part in it whatsoever in the rescue team!

Captain Kirk wrote:Oh and like it or not, there will now be many tourists who will want to go into the caves there to see for themselves what it looks like. A tourist attraction will be born from this.

Already in the works.

MAE SAI, Thailand, July 11 (Reuters) - A cave complex in Thailand where 12 schoolboys and their soccer coach were trapped for more than two weeks before they were safely brought out will be turned into a museum to showcase the rescue, the head of the operation said on Wednesday.